Hell and Back
"Hell and Back" is the 1st episode in the second season of Campaign 2.0, and the 9th episode overall in the campaign. Summary * Darkness. The afterlife’s kinda boring when you’re Sulelia and Thomal. But they don’t have to worry about that, because they’re brought back to life by a group of clerics! Daisy and Orkrush are there, the latter wielding a massive war hammer and standing above the crumpled body of the medusa that had killed us. * Daisy, clad in adventuring gear, rushes up to Sulelia and gives her the biggest damn hug. Thomal’s a little confused, but thankful nonetheless. Sulelia holds Daisy in her arms and asks how she found the party. Daisy grew worried after Sulelia never came back, and scryed on her location through the help of the Augury’s wizards. She then teamed up with Orkrush and the clerics to venture out and rescue us. It’s been about two months since we’ve all died. * The clerics bring Bryna back through focusing on her Thunder Cannon. Her body’s covered up immediately upon being brought back into existence. A freshly-revived Bryna’s like, what the fuck, and jumps up immediately! She’s buck-ass naked. * Bryna’s afterlife was her going to the Nine Hells. Thomal assures her she’s probably going back, seeing as she wastes no time in being a bitch again after being brought back. * Cyrus’ statue was completely destroyed, so that’s beyond the limits of revival. As for Veru… a particularly large skeleton is seen resting on the ground. When we first arrived in the medusa’s chamber, it was littered with petrified statues. Now, the chamber’s full of adventurers chatting amongst themselves - the clerics brought back as many as they could. * Sulelia spots Darwesh, the lady Uroplian wanted us to find in the first place. Apparently, she had no idea Uroplian was a dragon in the first place. Quite the surprise there. She means to have a word with him, and Sulelia offers for us to take her back to him before we leave. * We bring her back to Uroplian. The dragon immediately shifts back into his elven form upon seeing her. Sulelia eavesdrops on their hushed whisper-yelling. Darwesh is super pissed that Urpolian allowed these stinky humanoids to see him in his true form, and even more irate with the fact that he told them that he kept all of this treasure in the castle he naps on. * Uroplian’s, like, super apologetic. He explains that he thought he could just lead them all to their deaths by sending them to the medusa, and if they actually managed to come back with Darwesh, it was a win-win! * Darwesh is still fuming. She wants to ensure that we can all keep this a secret. Sulelia swears by her paladin oath not to tell anyone about Uroplian and his horde, and everyone else agrees, too. Who would disagree with a dragon? * Bryna’s gifted a nice-ass set of leather armor by Darwesh. She’s been walking around naked the whole time under a cloth she’d tied around herself. * We leave as Darwesh drags Uroplain into the castle. Before we leave, we hear a poof sound from inside the castle. Huh. * On our way back to the Augury, we meet Gareth Wolfsbane, a wood elf ranger played by Jack. He offers his services to help us navigate the woods on our upcoming search for the birthstone. Dope! * Back at the Augury, we gear up for our Birthstone-finding escapade. Before we leave, Sulelia checks in with Daisy, ever thankful that she legit saved all of our lives. * Daisy’s understandably a bit troubled after everything. She’s really saddened to hear that Sulelia would risk her life for absolute strangers. That conversation comes to a pretty sad end. In the morning, Daisy gives Sulelia a peck on the lips, and expects her to come back this time. * Good morning, today’s the day! It’s Birthstone finding time. Following Uroplian’s directions, we find the cave it’s located in, but not before finding other little things along the way. Sulelia finds a ring that summons vermin! We also discover a deep pool full of evil fish and detect undead below it. We’ll investigate that another time. * On one of our watches, Gareth and Sulelia spot what we think to be a young green dragon. It all checks out; dragons are obviously resurfacing, and we’d seen it in a dense woodland area, their natural habitat! * We all talk to Thomal about his son’s mysterious illness. He tells us that he’s not as big as he should be, he spends all his time in bed, and he doesn’t even know how to hunt yet! The kid also happens to be a months-old infant. We all question Thomal’s line of reasoning, here. * Anyways, we eventually find the cave where the Birthstone is. After messing around with puzzles that include burning hot vines, tapestries, and hidden entrances, we find it! A giant pink heart-shaped stone sits atop a pedestal in the center of the dungeon’s final chamber. * The thing’s too big to fit inside of Bryna’s mechanical dragon, and neither Thomal or Sulelia can lift the thing from its pedestal.